Contents

Description

The wings are translucent, with a wingspan of 5.6 to 6.1 cm (2.2 to 2.4 in).[2] Its most common English name is glasswinged butterfly, and its Spanish name is "espejitos", which means "little mirrors". Indeed, the tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass, as it lacks the colored scales found in other butterflies.[3] The opaque borders of its wings are dark brown sometimes tinted with red or orange, and its body is dark in color.

Distribution

Feeding

G. morgane oto visits common flowers like lantana, but prefers to lay its eggs on plants of the tropical Solanaceae genus Cestrum.[2] The green caterpillars[4] feed on these toxic plants and are perhaps toxic to predators through secondary chemicals stored in their tissues; caterpillar chemical extracts are unpalatable to Paraponera clavata ants.[5] Adults are also assumed to be toxic,[6] but their toxicity results mainly from males feeding on flowers (e.g., Asteraceae) whose nectar contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids. These same alkaloids also are converted into pheromones by the males and used to attract females.